China

Beijing before the Congress

Party planning

LONG-TIME residents of Beijing anticipate major political events with the same mix of resignation and dread those in other parts of the world might a large storm or the inevitable visit of a particularly annoying relative. With the 18th Party Congress set to begin this Thursday, the fun begins anew.

Any incidents taking place during such grand events don’t comply with traditional political culture. But this doesn’t mean Chinese politics cannot afford incidents. Our society has seen many accidents and crises that were not supposed to happen before the Party Congress; they made some stirs, but finally increased flexibility to China’s politics.

Internet users complain about problems connecting to foreign websites, including those usually accessible in Beijing. Google searches time out, even for innocuous terms. Many expatriates report disruptions using overseas services, such as Gmail and Skype. VPNs, the virtual private networks used by foreigners and Chinese alike to circumvent the “Great Firewall”, no longer work or require constant updating and maintenance just to stay connected.

Taxi passengers have begun to complain about stuffy cabs and circuitous itineraries, the Beijing municipal government having ordered all the city’s taxis to disable their windows, and to avoid central areas of the city during the congress. According to a memo that was sent to taxi operators (and posted on the China Digital Times), cabbies must also be on the lookout “for passengers…carrying balloons that bear slogans or ping-pong balls bearing reactionary message [sic].”

Events large and small, including school-choir concerts and the Beijing marathon, have been told to cancel or postpone.

Meanwhile, volunteers wearing red armbands man the subway platforms and street corners. The municipal government has tasked them with keeping an eye out for potential trouble and reporting suspicious persons or activities to the authorities. Some of these so-called volunteers—who are paid the equivalent of about $6 per day for their efforts—are unemployed young people, but most of them are senior citizens. In many societies, retirees gather to gossip about their neighbours. China has taken the logical next step and deputised them.

Overhead, banners hang on almost every street proclaiming the 18th Party Congress. A red banner adorning a Qing-era pavilion in Sun Yat-sen Park, just outside the Forbidden City, requests that parkgoers resolutely prevent fires during this special period. Another underneath an overpass on a busy highway in central Beijing reminds passers-by that the 18th Congress is upon us and that a civilized district is a happy district.

No one questions the government taking precautions at a time when almost all of China’s highest-profile political figures (at least those not currently incarcerated on corruption charges) will be in the city at the same time. Nevertheless, it is difficult to take seriously precautions that preclude the buying of remote-controlled toy aircraft (in Chinese, with the English at Shanghaiist) or betray the fear of reactionary ping-pong balls.

Such excesses would be merely laughable, were there not a darker side to some of them. This month the Beijing government set up a security “moat” of roadblocks and checkpoints that encircle the city and create “a safe, orderly, auspicious and peaceful environment for the successful holding of the 18th CPC National Congress.”

More ominously, several prominent activists have received stern warnings: they are to make themselves scarce over the next few weeks. A prominent AIDS activist, Hu Jia, who has been under house arrest in Beijing since his release from prison last year, announced via his blog that security officials had escorted him to the train station and ordered him to return to his parent’s home in the province of Anhui and remain there until the end of the month. Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer who has represented artist Ai Weiwei in his battles with the state, is vacationing in Jiangxi this month. An environmentalist, Wu Lihong, told the Guardian that he has been prevented from leaving his hometown in Jiangsu since this past summer.

The Chinese Communist Party sees occasions like its 18th Congress as chances to trumpet its achievements and display its power and authority to the nation and the world. The sweeping measures undertaken to ensure harmony in the capital suggest that while the Party maintains its firm grip on the levers of power, it is staying true to form and leaving precious little to chance while the congress is in session.

Readers' comments

As someone who works and lives in Beijing, I find the article’s declaration of “Beijingers have been alternately exasperated and amused by restrictions on everything from satellite dishes to butter knives” incredulous, not true and somewhat malicious.

If the author was from the US, it’s even more incredulous to have such an article written. Post 911 anti-terrorist security concerns should make security measures taken in Beijing for the 18th CPC Congress assembly, as “joked” in this article, routine and mild mannered.

IMO, local law enforcement in Beijing and elsewhere in China are not doing their job if they weren’t mindful of terrorist saboteur from foreign and domestic elements bent on throwing monkey wrenches to this CPC Congress event with preventative measures.

I mean have you been through a security gate in an American airport recently? As tedious, time wasteful and sometimes humiliating as passengers are subject to, these US Home Security guys must be respected for what they are doing for security. It’s no laughing matter and no joke.

BTW, satellite dishes are banned in big cities for years for zoning regulations, and not for this event at all.

In China urban areas are usually all cabled with various TV programming and no unsightly dishes are allowed except for specialized users, and all rural areas are now 100% covered with satellite dishes (for all and any village or spot with 20 or more residences). Sanctioned TV channels are fully available for all 1.33 billions of folks in China, CPC Congress in session or not.

I agree. As someone who used to pay a visit to US, the biggest impression i have with US is the tight and sometimes weird security check. You need to take off even your shoes when going through airport check. And the security check is as tight as in an airport even in the state empire building. This author obviously has nothing to write about.

Though it might be somewhat exaggerated, there are such and sometimes unnecessary worries leading to restrictions on buying of a cooking knife or a pair of scissors etc. It is laughable but also understandable as CPC always says stability is of the first priority. Something more laughable should be many western writers' suppositions based on their sometimes-not-so-accurate sources and their own observations (or imaginations?).

I use gmail myself, now I could not access my mailbox for several days. No New York Times, no Twitter, no Facebook, of course no Taiwan news websites, no criticizm of party or quoting of "18th party congress" with big slide of a stock on internet blogs (the messages would be deleted almost instantly). What a waste of tax payer's money, I don't think anyone really want to pay the tax to sponsor such evil activities. So what really is the government here? They tell us they are good friend of North Korea Commu Party.

I don't know where the person who wrote this article gets his information, but living about 5km from the city centre, I haven't had any problems at all here in Beijing. Yes, there's increased security around Tiananmen these days, but if the entire congress, senate, the president, as well as every governor in the US gathered in the same building at the same time, I'm pretty sure they would take security just as seriously, if not even more so, due to the greater risk of terrorist attacks.
And about the taxi thing, the driver can still open HIS window to let in fresh air, just not windows in the back of the taxi. But considering that it's about 5-10 degrees C these days, I'm pretty sure that most people would prefer car heating to freezing air, which would account for the stuffy taxis much more than the window rule...

This is just another article bashing China, without actually looking at what's going on, and what the underlying factors are, that lead to the enforcement being criticized.
I have been seeing more and more of these, recently. I wonder why.
I mean, the corruption and exploitation of power that is exposed, that's all well and good, but these needless and baseless China-bashing stories are redundant, and really don't have a place here on the Economist.

Marodir might care to mention that China has a repressive and controlling government, regardless of the current 18th Congress taking place in Beijing. Hong Kong’s Pearl’s television flagship news programme at 7.30pm and Pear’s The Pearl Report are routinely blocked by Mainland China’s autocratic government with intermittent advertisements on a nightly basis on issues the government would rather not deal with; not to mention that television from Hong Kong has a time delay. This is aside from the controls the government puts on its own citizens seeking to access the Internet. This is aside from the endless incidents of people being arrested and taken to an undisclosed location for long periods of time without access to legal representation or access to their families. This is aside from China failing to develop a working legal system, which represents the people in a fair and just way.

‘China bashing’, he writes. One only has to ask, what is China, with its recently gained monitory power, giving to the world? It’s not democracy; it’s not an enlightened government; it’s not model employers; it’s not an enviable or workable social welfare system; it’s not examples of good governance etc.

The West is right to look upon China with trepidation with China’s rise and entry onto the world’s stage.